Innholdsfortegnelse for January - February 2016 i Plane & Pilot

This issue marks my debut as editor-in-chief of Plane & Pilot, a magazine that I’ve been reading for most of my life. I’m thrilled to be here, humbled to be allowed the opportunity to help create the future of a title with so much history and so much promise. Many of you know me already—I spent nearly 20 years at another aviation title—and know what inspires me. Not surprisingly, chief among those things that excite me are airplanes and, really, all things aviation. There aren’t many boundaries to my airborne interests. I love even the lightest and most accessible machines, Quicksilvers, Cubs and primary gliders, and I’m drawn to the power, speed and technological wonder of big jets and their near-supersonic splendor. I just love flight, the daring innovation, the…

How does one get to the World Aerobatic Championships (WAC)? Practice, practice, practice….or you catch an airline out of Jacksonville, fly to Charlotte then to Dulles, pick up British Airways to London-Heathrow and then on to Paris. Meet up with your cousin; spend the night at a boutique hotel. Walk a mile through the maze of Gare Montparnasse to rent a car while taking many wrong turns; then drive three hours to Châteauroux in Central France. It’s a long trip, indeed. However, if you’re competing at the WAC, you’ll spend at least seven years of training, burn hundreds of gallons of 100LL, devote your life to finding the right airplane, get critiqued and coached, and compete at the U.S. Nationals in order to make the U.S. Aerobatic Team. Then it’s…

According to studies by the FAA, hearing is second only to vision as a sensory mechanism to obtain critical information during the operation of an aircraft. Hearing allows pilots to identify and process the various sounds that come from the aircraft’s engine, fuselage, instruments and radio. Experienced pilots may not realize that they use kinesthesia—the sensitive sensory perception your body has to tell you your position and direction of movement—to detect subtle changes in the aircraft, such as the approach to a stall or the proper landing speed. Much of kinesthesia relies on hearing. The damage that can occur to our sense of hearing—especially from cockpit noise—was not of great concern to pilots until 1972 when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued Advisory Circular AC 91-35—“Noise, Hearing Damage, and Fatigue…

A decade after light-sport aircraft burst on the aviation scene, the array of brands, models and configurations is simply amazing. A nascent industry announced more than one new every month since the regulation was introduced. So many choices are available that it becomes a lengthy research project to sort through them. Virtually every pilot interest in aircraft is addressed, provided you can be satisfied within FAA-defined parameters of speed and seat count. The old military tactic of divide and conquer can help winnow the field. This isn’t to pass judgment on any aircraft not included, but to demonstrate the most popular choices, while yet heralding the wide spectrum of flying machines. To narrow your choices from bewildering to reasonable, I’ll reference the best-sellers and some of the most intriguing…

AIRPLANE Aviat Husky A1-C www.planeandpilotmag.com/aircraft/ pilot-reports/aviat/backin-from-the-dock-in-the-bay .html#.Vl4JG9-rSUM Most piston-engine-powered seaplanes make at least a little bit of forward movement whenever the engine is running. It’s just a fact of life when on floats. Seaplane pilots learn to adjust their technique to sail and use the wind, but sometimes, it would just be great to stop and wait for conditions to settle down or to stop your forward momentum. This Husky can do just that. JOURNEY Coast To Coast In An LSA www.planeandpilotmag.com/travel/journeys /flying-high-above-the-mother-road.html# .Vl4Jst-rSUM Flying from sea to shining sea is the ultimate cross-country adventure for any pilot, especially for contributing writer Adam St. John, PE. Departing from Gaithersburg, Md. (KGAI), early in the morning with his mother as copilot, he headed for the Pacific in his two-seater SportCruiser light-sport…

“Balance & Presence” Strikes A Chord Contributor Patty Wagstaff’s Let It Roll column from our December issue resonated with a lot of our readers. If you haven’t had a chance to read it, find out what all the buzz is about at http://www.planeandpilotmag.com/pilot-talk/let-it-roll/balance-and-presence.html. I genuinely enjoyed your writing published in P&P November 2015. It seems to me just being around my airplane (my wife’s only real competition) clears my head. On the ground, in my hanger (yes...I do groom her myself) or in the air. You spoke of it so well. Thank you for helping me relive and revive the reason I fly! I’ve had my license for a tad over 30 years and have built, owned and flown several airplanes, my favorite being the one I have now. The…

SO, WHY DIDN’T THE PILOTS REALIZE THAT THE CONTROL LOCK WAS STILL ENGAGED WHEN THEY RAN ALL OF THE CHECKLISTS ASSOCIATED WITH GETTING A G-IV OFF THE GROUND? I shook my head in disbelief while reading the NTSB’s report on the May 31, 2014, nighttime accident involving a Gulfstream G-IV at Hanscom Field (BED) in Bedford, Mass., which was released a couple of months ago. How could the experienced, professional flight crew of the modern twin-engine jet try to take off with locked controls? Sounded impossible to me, but that’s what the Safety Board said happened. The airplane overran the end of runway 11, crossed a grassy area, hit approach lights and a localizer antenna, passed through the airport’s perimeter fence and finally stopped in a ravine, bursting into flames.…

Periodically, I’ll do something stupid, like buy a lottery ticket. It’s not a preplanned thing. I’ll just be standing there, and for no reason, I’ll drop a buck on the counter, knowing full well that I could get the same effect by setting fire to the bill; the actual statistics say that you stand a much bigger chance of being hit by lightning than winning a lottery. That having been said, however, I know two different people who have won: one for $12 million another for $24 million. So, it does happen. Plus, last month, my friend and handyman called me while on a supply run to Home Depot to say he wouldn’t be back until the next day: He had just won $50,000 on a scratcher. When this happens,…

As one who has been trying to figure out this concept called flying for longer than I can remember, I’ve always been a little mystified as to why the same accidents seem to keep happening for the same reasons. Certainly, I’d never be the perpetrator of such dumb behavior…or would I? I rarely fly anything heavier than 11,000 pounds, but that doesn’t excuse me from avoiding checklists. The very nature of checklists is such that larger, more sophisticated airplanes demand progressively more exotic systems. That, in turn, leads to longer and more complex checklists to manage the airplane. A recent incident with a corporate Gulfstream GIV jet highlights one of the most common errors pilots make in operating any aircraft, be it a Pitts Special or an exotic twin-turbine business…

Some capable pistons and many older turbines gain a whole new lease on life with a turbine engine conversion, and sometimes, that’s the most effective way to gain more performance without breaking the bank. Here’s a list of some of the most popular options. Blackhawk Modifications, Inc. ( www.blackhawk.areo ) Texas-based Blackhawk has a long history of engineering turbine conversions and has performed more than 1,000 turbine P&WC PT6A installations on a wide variety of aircraft. Conversions are available for Piper Cheyennes and Cessna Conquests, but the most popular are new engines for the King Air 90 and 200 series and Cessna Caravans. The new Blackhawk 867 hp, PT6A-140 conversion for the 208A/208B Caravan line provides 44% more power and is available for non-G1000 equipped aircraft. It provides…

Icing terrifies many pilots. Under the worst circumstances, it can turn a beautiful, aerodynamically clean aircraft design into a flying brick with little possibility of control. Fortunately, icing hazards can be minimized with intelligent decision-making and strict adherence to the pilot’s universal rule, “Fly the airplane” and the fi rst corollary, “Don’t panic” You can sometimes negate some of that fear at major airports with ground deicing, though that’s an expensive treatment that’s not always available at smaller airports. If you do use ground anti-icing, try to avoid the fate of Air Florida’s Palm 90 at Washington National in 1982. The 737 was deiced, then delayed 50 minutes and again covered with ice during the wait. The crew departed anyway, the airplane stalled on takeoff and crashed into the Potomac…